Lobato overpowers Impey to take stage 2 victory at the Santos Tour Down Under
by Matt de Neef
Juan Jose Lobato (Movistar) has won stage 2 of the 2015 Santos Tour Down Under, sprinting to victory in Stirling three days after finishing second to Marcel Kittel (Giant-Alpecin) in the People’s Choice Classic criterium.
Three days after coming second in the People’s Choice Classic criterium, Juan Jose Lobato went one better on stage 2 of the Tour Down Under.
Lobato came from a long way back to overhaul Nathan Haas (Cannondale-Garmin) and Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEdge) in the closing metres, with the latter finishing second. Lobato’s teammate Gorka Izaguirre rounded out the podium in what was a more-than-successful day for the Spanish squad.
Jack Bobridge (UniSA-Australia) finished 20th on the stage, doing enough to maintain his overall lead ahead of tomorrow’s third stage of the six-stage race.
The day’s major breakaway featured 2011 Tour Down Under winner Cameron Meyer (Orica-GreenEdge), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) and Campbell Flakemore (BMC), the group coming together after 16km. They would be caught with 24km to go before Calvin Watson (Trek) and Danilo Wyss (BMC) featured in a short-lived escape ahead of the finish.
Lobato
Bobridge
Bobridge
Lobato
Bonifazio
Movistar TeamClick here to read the full report and see an extensive stage photo gallery on CyclingTips.
Fernando Gaviria takes a second sprint victory at the Tour de San Luis
Twenty-year-old Colombian Fernando Gaviria has continued his impressive run at the Tour de San Luis, adding a stage 3 sprint victory to his success on stage 1.
Gaviria repite triunfo en Juana Koslay. Cavendish se conforma otra vez con el segundo lugar. #TourdeSanLuis pic.twitter.com/l5V5M4aVQO
— La Cadenilla (@LaCadenilla) January 21, 2015
Just like he did on stage 1, Gaviria won stage 3 when he outsprinted his more-fancied rivals in Mark Cavendish (Etixx-Quick-Step) and Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida).
The day’s breakaway featured Lucas Lopardo (San Juan), Ismael Laguna (Argentina), Giacomo Berlato (Nippo-Vini Fantini), Kiel Reijnen (UnitedHealthcare), Guido Palma (Buenos Aires) and later José Rodríguez (Chile). They enjoyed a maximum advantage of 3:30 on the 176.3km stage from Concarán to Juana Koslay, before being caught inside the final 25km.
Gaviria is currently racing for the Colombian national team in the Argentinian race but will surely attract the attention of the bigger teams after his efforts in the race.
Stage 3: Concarán > Juana Koslay - Stage Result
Wednesday 21st January 2015
| 1. |  |
GAVIRIA Fernando
|
03:48:44 |
| 2. |  |
CAVENDISH Mark
Etixx - Quick Step
|
- |
| 3. |  |
MODOLO Sacha
Lampre - Merida
|
- |
Click here to read more at VeloNews.
How Velon is vying to boost the value and stability of pro cycling
When it was launched on November 25th the Velon company declared that it had three goals, with perhaps the most important of those being a stated desire to create a new and better economic future for the sport.
Velon’s CEO Graham Bartlett, who is representing 11 WorldTour teams in trying to transform the sport and its commercial model
Somewhat inevitably, this was met with calls for clarification of how precisely that might work.
Almost two months on the company has had a chance to build plans and relationships. It is now in a position to give a better insight into how a new revenue stream might be built.
Velon’s CEO Graham Bartlett spoke exclusively to CyclingTips in recent days and gave further details of what is planned and how it may potentially gel together to transform the sport.
“We have literally been swamped with opportunities, ideas, good conversations, good discussions. It has been a really, really busy time.”
Click here to read the full interview on CyclingTips.
Campbell Flakemore breaks collarbone while riding back from Tour Down Under stage finish
by Wade Wallace
BMC neo-pro Campbell Flakemore has broken his collarbone after crashing on his ride back to the team hotel after stage two of the Santos Tour Down Under on Wednesday.
Flakemore said in a press release that the accident happened while he was negotiating a turn on a descent.
“We were going pretty quickly – maybe 55 or 60 kilometres an hour,” he said. “It was a left-hand turn and on the shoulder there was gravel or I maybe hit a bit of a groove. The next thing I knew I was on the ground. As soon as I got up, I knew something in my shoulder or collarbone was pretty bad.”
BMC Racing Team’s Dr. Scott Major said Flakemore will undergo surgery Thursday in Adelaide.
“It was a clean break in the middle part of the clavicle, which is the best place for a fracture to occur,” Dr. Major said. “It is also most amenable to fixing it surgically.”
Click here to read more at CyclingTips.
Rogers loses teammate in Santos Tour Down Under
Tinkoff-Saxo’s aim of contending for the overall in the Santos Tour Down Under has been complicated somewhat by the loss of one of five riders who had been posed to support leader Michael Rogers.
Slovakian rider Michael Kolar was forced to quit during the second stage, with illness putting paid to his time in the WorldTour event.
“That wasn’t why he came to Australia, he obviously wanted to continue,” said directeur sportif Lars Michaelsen. “He fought his best to stay in the race, but when you’re ill and coughing there’s nothing to do on fast days like today. He was already sick before Tour Down Under started and now we’ll give him some time to recover.”
He still believes in the team leader’s prospects, though, claiming that Kolar’s retirement “will not affect Michael Rogers’ chances. Our team is strong and motivated.”
Luis Leon Sanchez grateful for second chance with Astana
After a season spent with second-tier Spanish team Caja Rural, Luis Leon Sanchez was given a lifeline by Astana; a lifeline he is more than grateful for.
After alleged links to infamous Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, Sanchez was bought out of his contract with Belkin, making the rider’s future uncertain. He had to drop down a level to get a ride in 2014, but in 2015 he’s back in the big league.
“I am happy, above all to return to the WorldTour, and I am thankful for the team, and how they’ve been treating me so far,” Sánchez said. “I want to ride well, enjoy the bike, and do as well as I can for this team.”
“It’s good to be racing again,” Sánchez said ahead of the first stage of the Tour Down Under. “It’s the first stage of the year, and no-one knows how the body is going to respond, especially here in Australia, with the heat … It’s hard to say how the legs will respond, but I am hoping to have a good race as the week unfolds.”
Click here to read more at VeloNews.
Malaysia’s toughest climb to host penultimate day showdown at Tour de Langkawi
Reverting to an earlier format which saw the race showdown left until the second-to-last day, the organisers of the Tour de Langkawi confirmed on Wednesday that the gruelling Genting Highlands climb would conclude the penultimate stage of the race.
“In the earlier editions of le Tour de Langkawi, the Genting stage was usually held on the penultimate day,” said the race’s chief executive officer Datuk Malik Mydin. “We think this helped build up to an exciting climax and this is the scenario we hope to bring back with this year’s route.
“We will have the most fitting start for the race, the Genting stage appropriately held on the penultimate day, which means the climax will be left till very late. Then for the 20th edition we will also mark it with a return to the traditional finish venue at Dataran Merdeka.”
The 2.HC event will begin where it originally did two decades ago; on the island of Langkawi in Malaysia’s north.
Australian road champion Peta Mullens continues along rocky path of mountain biking
Peta Mullens has the Australian road champion’s jersey on her back, a deal with one of the top women’s road teams, Wiggle Honda, and enviable form on the road but that is not enough to make the determined 26-year-old Victorian turn her back on the obstacle-strewn path of mountain biking.
The summer of road racing is over for the Australian champion, who has shifted back to the winding dirt of the cross country mountain bike tracks. She is immensely proud of the road title, her sixth national title in cycling and fourth since she left the junior ranks, but her main aim is still a berth in the Rio Olympics mountain bike team next year.
“I think everybody just thought automatically that the road would be the clear pathway and perhaps winning an Australian title might be an indication that Rio on the road might be something for me,” Mullens told CyclingTips. “But at the end of the day, mountain biking is where my heart is and it is where my passion is.”
Click here to read the full interview on CyclingTips.
Pantani’s family continues to pursue claim he was murdered
Although claims that Marco Pantani may have been murdered appeared to have lost ground towards the end of last year, the 1998 Tour de France winner’s family and its lawyer Antonio De Rensis are continuing to push for an ultimate finding along those lines.
Rimini’s Head Prosecutor Paolo Giovagnoli said on December 4 that he was sceptical. “Currently there are no elements that would make you consider a murder.”
However De Rensis is sticking by his assertion that Pantani let unknown men into his room in the Le Rose hotel, with those individuals later hitting him and forcing him to drink a mixture of water plus cocaine.
According to ANSA, De Rensis presented police video footage from the Le Rose hotel, with the lawyer then questioning the blood stains under Pantani’s body plus a nearby ball formed by the mixture of cocaine plus bread. He claims that these two elements could help his theory someone else was involved in Pantani’s death.
Click here to read more at Cycling Weekly.
Tour de Yorkshire course revealed
Organisers of the Tour de Yorkshire have revealed the course for this year’s inaugural edition of the race, confirming that the race will return to the roads used by the Tour de France last year.
The three-day legacy event, to be held from May 1 to May 3, will feature the climb of Oxenhope Moor on day 3, on a stage that features much of the course used in stage 2 of the Tour de France, in reverse.
The UCI2.1 race will feature teams at a WorldTour and ProContinental level, with Continental and national teams also able to receive invitations.
Click here to read more at Cycling Weekly.
Meeusen plans to take legal action after Worlds exclusion
Telenet-Fidea rider Tom Meeusen and two other Belgians Laurens Sweeck and Bart Wellens were recently blocked from being part of the national team for the world cyclocross championships, but the Telenet-Fidea rider is determined to push to be allowed to ride his big season target.
“The team has hired a lawyer. I’m not really aware of the investigation I have not heard about it for months,” he told ATV. “At the BK (Belgian Championships) last year, a week before it, I had to give a DNA sample. I don’t know if there’s anything else I have to do.”
The trio were all implicated in an investigation looking into the activities of their doctor Chris Mertens. He is suspected of providing banned ozone therapy to 19 athletes, including cyclists. Meeusen was previously questioned in relation to the case and was blocked from riding the Rome World Cup race and the World Championships in 2013.
While other riders have been banned as a result, Meeusen continues to maintain his innocence.
Click here to read more on Cyclingnews.
Behind the scenes of Jack Bobridge’s Tour Down Under stage win
In case you missed this video the other day, set aside some time this morning to watch it. It’s a cracker.
Extreme Tandem Race with the GCN team
This video is a collaboration between a sports nutrition brand and GCN, but it’s still worth a watch. The humour and personalities that we’ve come to love in the GCN videos shine through, particularly in the tandem hillclimb race towards the end of the video.
Former Australian cricketer collides with kangaroo while riding
Bronwyn Calver, who played cricket for Australia in the 1990s, was flung from her bike earlier this week when she struck a kangaroo. Here’s how she described the incident on her YouTube channel:
“They don’t call Canberra the Bush Capital for nothing…this accident occurred on Adelaide Avenue just off Capital Circle…I escaped relatively unscathed with no broken bones but a severely grazed and bruised elbow, grazed hip and 8 stitches in my knee…while the ‘roo did hop away, it jumped over the railing on Adelaide Ave down to State Circle where it was subsequently hit by a car and killed.
Here’s the incident:
The Rocacorba Recap
And finally this morning, here are a few things you might have missed at CyclingTips:
- How Velon is vying to boost the value and stability of pro cycling
- Bikes of the 2015 WorldTour
- Suggested rides at the 2015 Santos Tour Down Under
- Photo gallery: Highlights from the 2015 Santos Women’s Tour